Susan Granger's review of 'Broken City'

Published 3:07 pm, Friday, February 1, 2013

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This wannabe political thriller falls far short of its mark as it unravels the dense web of criminal conspiracies enveloping longtime incumbent New York City Mayor Nicholas Hosteler (Russell Crowe), who is vying for re-election with a younger, richer city councilman, Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper).

After he was forced to take a fall seven years ago for gunning down an exonerated rapist/gang member, allegedly in self-defense, former NYPD detective Billy Taggert (Mark Wahlberg) opened his own private investigation agency in Brooklyn. Working with an office assistant, Katy Bradshaw (Alona Tal), he's often strapped for money. That's why he accepts with alacrity a $50,000 cash offer from Hosteler to spy on the his classy wife, Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom the blustering mayor suspects of adultery.

The plot thickens when Billy concludes that Cathleen is involved with Paul Andrews

case turns out to be far more convoluted since there's a clandestine subplot revolving around a multibillion-dollar deal to level Bolton Village, a public housing project -- and Billy is being used as a pawn. Adding to the complications are Police Commissioner Carl Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) and Taggert's aspiring-actress girlfriend, Natalie Barrow (Natalie Martinez), who just happens to be the older sister of the rape victim whom Billy bumped off and her family, conveniently, lives in the Bolton Village project.